PAIN IS OUR FRIEND
Rabbi Kalman Krohn zt”l was once in a taxi in Israel. The driver appeared to be completely nonobservant. Rabbi Krohn said to him, “You know, we are brothers.”
“Brothers?” answered the driver. “I’m not your brother. I have nothing to do with you. You live one way and I live another way.”
“Oh no, you’re wrong. My rebbe told me that we’re brothers!”
“Your rebbe! Who is your rebbe?”
“Adolf Hitler!”
The driver shook violently and almost crashed!
Yes, my friends! As I said last week, the Gemara tells us that, if we don’t do teshuva in the days before Moshiach, Hashem will place over us a king whose decrees will be as harsh as Haman. From a “rebbe” like this you don’t forget!
This week we read Parshas Zachor. We read it to remind us of reality. This is a world in which we are in terrible danger. We are frail mortals. Not only that, we Jews are spiritual beings who want to fix the broken world around us.
But it is so broken! How can we fix it?
“In the morning [the plant] blossoms and is rejuvenated; by evening it is cut down and brittle …. The days of our years… are seventy years, and … with strength, eighty years. [Our] proudest success is but toil and pain, for it is cut off swiftly and we fly away!” (Tehillim 90)
The reality is that we tend to sink to the material level. From the moment of birth, the body cries out for food and comfort! If we have an ache, the pain consumes us.
Dr. Ashutosh Tewari is a famous surgeon at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Like many Indians, he has a strong philosophical side. Dr. Tewari once told me, “Pain is our friend. With cancer, there is no pain in the beginning, and that is one reason it is so dangerous. But when something hurts you, it is a heavenly sign that something is wrong, and you can act on it. Pain is our friend.”
This world is filled with pain.
The neshoma is neglected in this world. Who hears her crying? The kedusha, the holiness within us is buried under the rubble of this world! “Bacho siv’ke balayla … alas she weeps bitterly in the night and her tear is on her cheek….” (Eichah 1:2)
Who could believe that this world – the world of computers, cars, trucks, airplanes, highways, bridges, guns, rockets, bombs, sirens, tears, pain and trouble – who could believe that one day kedusha, holiness, the Song of the Torah will rule the world?
We believe! Ani ma’amin!
Am Yisroel knows that the Kol Torah will one day rule the world.
“[The word of G-d] then said [to Eliyahu ha Novi], ‘Go out [of the cave] and stand on the mountain before Hashem.’ And behold, Hashem was passing, and a great powerful wind, smashing mountains and breaking rocks, went before Hashem. [Eliyahu was told], ‘Hashem is not in the wind.’ After the wind came an earthquake. ‘Hashem is not in the earthquake.’ After the earthquake came a fire. ‘Hashem is not in the fire.’ After the fire came a still, thin sound. It happened that, when Eliyahu heard [this], he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and stood by the cave’s entrance, and behold, a voice [spoke] to him ….” (I Melachim 19:11)
The voice of Hashem is a “still, thin sound.” We must listen carefully if we want to hear it. The yetzer hara is loud; we have to fight it every second. It is said that the Alter of Kelm kept a special garment he would wear only if he wanted to express anger. He would never express anger unless he was wearing this garment.
“Reb Yerucham Levovitz was a man of total self-control. [He wrote] ‘I have come to realize that my actions are not triggered by my own will. Rather they are brought about by the will of others…. Therefore, I have undertaken to do five things every day that are against my own will [in order to gain self-control] ….’” (The Traveling Maggid, Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Artscroll/Mesorah)
These may seem like extreme actions by highly-refined gadolim, but in this deadly war being waged against us by the yetzer hara, extreme measures are required. This is actually not extremism. It is reality!
“Ki mi Tzion taitzai Torah … From Tzion will emanate the Torah and the Word of Hashem from Yerushalayim.” That is why we need to remind ourselves “what Amalek did to [us] on the way when [we] were leaving Egypt.”
Just when we thought we were free, that is when Amalek came to attack us! We can never let our defenses down, not even for a second. Victory will come; someday we will have rest, but we are not there yet.
“It shall be that when Hashem, your G-d gives you rest from all your enemies all around, in the Land that Hashem, your G-d gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. You shall not forget!” (Haftaras Parshas Zachor)
May we soon see that Great Day!
Dr. Ashutosh Tewari with the author
GLOSSARY
Amalek: the archetypal enemy of Israel
Eliyahu ha Novi: Elijah the Prophet
Gadolim: Great rabbis
Neshoma: soul
Kol Torah: the “Voice” of the Torah
Yetzer hara: evil inclination
No comments:
Post a Comment